


two hearts would be perfect (but you know it's not a perfect world)

by theyellowumbrella



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 05:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13047744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theyellowumbrella/pseuds/theyellowumbrella
Summary: Vanessa, Charity and Ross' adventures in parenting.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An awkward encounter at the cafe.

“‘Nessa!”

Ross swears he’s only had his back turned for a second when Moses calls out. He spins around quickly, only to see Moses running as fast as his little legs will take him through the cafe. Vanessa looks reasonably surprised, but catches him easily when he launches himself into her arms. She wraps her arm tightly around the bottom of his back, shifting him up on her hip.

“Hiya, mate,” she says, giving him a small smile. He beams back at her, wrapping his short little arm around her neck as best as he can. “What’re you doing, eh?”

“Moses!” Ross exclaims, jogging towards them. “You can’t just run off like that.”

“Sorry, daddy,” he says, rubbing at his eye with his free hand. “I wanted to see Nessa.”

And look, Ross certainly isn’t a soft touch or anything, but how is he meant to resist his little boy when he’s staring up at him like that? He’s smiling happily at the two of them, clearly gleeful at having his dad and Vanessa together at the same time.

“Eh, it’s alright, mate,” he says, tickling Moses’ ribs gently. He lets out a high-pitched squeal and squirms in Vanessa’s arms, slipping down out of Vanessa’s grip slightly. She hitches him up higher, laughing a little at the look on his face.

“Erm, I was just gonna bring him round later, after he’s had his breakfast,” Ross says, turning to Vanessa.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” she says, fixing Moses’ hair with her hand from where it’s gotten ruffled. She smooths it down, tightening her grip when he squirms under her touch. “I’m the unfortunate sod that’s been sent on the breakfast run. Probably for the best, though — you know how Charity gets when she’s not had her coffee.”

“Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t wanna be you right now.” An awkward silence settles then, broken only occasionally by the little noises Moses sometimes makes.

If he’s being honest, Ross doesn’t really have a problem with Vanessa. She’s good with Moses — he’s always banging on about Vanessa this and Vanessa that — and from what he’s seen, she’s making Charity buck up. Not that he cares about Charity, he really couldn’t give less of a toss about her, except for the fact that she is Moses’ mum, and she has been stepping up a lot more lately.

Still, even if they’re not out to get each other, they certainly aren’t friends, not by any stretch of the word. No matter how normal she seems, she is still in a relationship with Charity; there must be something off about her.

Thankfully, they’re saved by Bob calling out his name. “Your food’s ready,” he says, giving Moses a little wave from behind the counter.

Ross smiles awkwardly at Vanessa, reaching out to take Moses from her arms. She gives him a kiss on his cheek before passing him over, unhooking his arm from around her neck. “Right, well, I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.” She reaches forward and ruffles his hair, grinning at the smile he sends her.

“Say goodbye to Vanessa,” Ross says, in the soft voice that he reserves solely for his son. He waves at her, Moses following suit, before Vanessa pushes past them with a smile to order her food and they take their seats at the table Ross has picked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this first one was so short i almost didn't post it lol but idk when the third one will be out so ... tiding you over till then
> 
> speak to me on tumblr! noahdingles.tumblr.com


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moses and Johnny's nativity brings up some awkward questions with their teacher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one got away from me

“What’s this about?” Ross demands, storming into the pub. He wields his phone in his hand like a weapon, pointing the screen at Charity.

She looks around, eyes flitting around the pub, before she sighs and settles them back on him. “Sorry, are you talking to me?”

“What’s this about a nativity?”

She perks up then. “Oh! It’s this afternoon.”

“Right, yeah,” he says. “That’s not the problem. Why am I only hearing about this now, an hour before it starts, in a text from his nursery?”

Charity shrugs, taking a glass from the rack and pulling a pint for him. Ross takes a seat at the bar, holding his phone up closer to her so that she can see the text. “I figured Moses would have told you,” she says, sliding the glass over the bar to him. “That’s £3.90.”

“I didn’t even order this!” he protests, but fishes out the coins from his pocket nonetheless. “And no, he didn’t. But if you think you can keep me away, you’re dead wrong.”

Charity snorts a little under her breath. “Calm down, Super Dad. I’m not trying to ‘keep you’ from anything.”

“Good.” He takes a long drink out of his pint, before wiping the foam from his mouth and putting it back down on the bar a little bit too forcefully. “What part’s he got, anyway?”

“Him and Johnny are wise men. Moses is the one bringing frankincense, Johnny’s got myrrh,” she says, almost proudly. It’s strange, seeing Charity take pride in the little things like that. She’s never really given much of a toss about the stupid things, like school nativities and her kids being chosen to be wise men. It’s nice, in a weird sort of way.

“What’s his costume like?”

“I dunno, a cape and a funny hat or something,” she says, and suddenly the old Charity, the one that pays little attention to anything other than the big things about her kids, is back. It’s almost comforting, knowing that she hasn’t changed completely. “So, you’re coming, then?”

“Yeah, ‘course I am.” He sends her a glare from across the bar. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Charity rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you’re the best dad in the world, you love Moses so much more than I do, yada yada yada. It’s getting a bit boring now, Ross, a bit repetitive.”

He doesn’t respond, just takes another drink of his pint. He kicks about at the pub for another half hour before Vanessa comes into the pub, Noah trailing not far behind her. “You ready?” she asks Charity.

“Why isn’t he at school?” She nods her head towards Noah as she unhooks her jacket from the clothes hook and pulls it on.

“Well, he sent me a barrage of texts begging me to pick him up early. Obviously just couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on the nativity of the year,” she says. She reaches out to ruffle his hair, but he ducks underneath her arm before she can.

“Moses and Johnny trying to remember their one lines each whilst trying their hardest not to drop their props? How could he possibly miss  _that_?” Charity asks, trying and failing to bite back a smile.

It’s not really something Ross thought he’d ever see — Charity being so …  _normal_ , that is. As long as he’s known her, she’s been nasty and vindictive and out for whatever she can get, but this Charity is almost just — like everyone else.

It’s jarring, watching her muck around with Vanessa and Noah so casually. They look like a real little family, preparing to go and watch the kids’ nativity, making jokes about it like that’s the way things have always been for them.

Ross thinks that maybe if he were a better person, he’d feel a little bit bad about putting a damper on this life they’ve so clearly been building together.

Except he’s not a better person, and he’d do anything for his little boy, even if it means having to put up with Charity for the rest of his life. And she  _has_ been better lately, less of a pain in the neck and more of a proper mum, so at least there’s that. At least even if he is burdening their lives he’s doing it fairly subtly.

“Are you coming, then, or what?” Charity asks, the three of them lingering by the door. He rolls his eyes but leaves his unfinished pint sitting out and gets up, falling behind them as they make their ways towards the car.

“I’ll meet you there,” he says, walking past them towards his own car, parked outside of Dale View. Vanessa gives him a small smile and a nod, continuing to chat away to Noah as she gets into the car.

*

The nativity itself — well. It’s a nativity done by a bunch of three and four year olds; Ross supposes that says enough. Moses and Johnny are somehow both able to remember their lines, although there is a bit of a situation when Johnny bumps into one of the shepherds and smashes his myrrh all over the ground, but they manage to fix it when he and Moses proudly step forward and announce to Mary and Joseph that they’ve went in on some frankincense together.

When the nativity is (finally) over, at least forty five minutes after Moses and Johnny’s last appearance on stage, the four of them traipse through to the classrooms being used as backstage.

Moses and Johnny are playing with the toy trucks in the corner of the room when they arrive. “Daddy!” Moses exclaims when he sees him, grin on his face. He jumps up, abandoning Johnny in favour of running to Ross. “You came!”

“‘Course I did, mate,” he replies, running a hand through his hair. “You were brilliant out there.”

“Nessa helped me learn my lines!” he explains excitedly, looking up at Vanessa like she’s the most important person in the room.

“Oh, she did, eh?” He looks at Vanessa, who’s smiling back at Moses happily. “Well, she did a brilliant job.”

Vanessa smiles at him, eyes bright like the praise is the best thing she’s heard all day. Things seem so simple for her sometimes, he almost envies her (until he remembers that a life spent with Charity Dingle could hardly be considered ‘simple’).

“Did you like it?” Johnny asks, looking up at Noah hopefully.

He smiles and tugs on the hem of his blazer. “Yeah. I especially liked the bit where you dropped your myrrh — I thought that was an …  _interesting_ artistic choice.”

Johnny stares up at him quizzically, eyes squinted in confusion. Charity thumps him in the side. “Stop winding him up.”

A woman then, only around twenty four or twenty five, approaches them with a smile on her face. She gives Moses and Johnny a small wave, before turning to approach Charity and Vanessa. “Hi! You must be Moses and Johnny’s mums?”

Vanessa nods. “Yeah, we are. I’m Vanessa. Are you their teacher?”

“That’s me — Miss Smith.” She opens her mouth to say something else, but clocks Ross out of the corner of her eye before she can. An apologetic look takes over her face. “Sorry! I completely missed you there.”

“Ah, it’s alright,” Ross says, shrugging.

“And you are?”

“I’m Moses’ dad.”

Her expression changes from easygoing to panicked. “Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry!” Vanessa, Charity, Ross and Noah all give her a confused look, while Moses and Johnny go back to playing.

“What’re you sorry for?” Noah asks, brow furrowed.

“I just — they’re always telling me how they’re brothers, and they’re always being picked up together, but I shouldn’t have assumed,” she says, cheeks flushing.

“Sorry, assumed what?” Vanessa asks.

The teacher’s eyes dart between the three of them for a good few seconds before she answered. “Well, I … I just assumed that - that the two of you were … you know,  _together_ , but I shouldn’t have, should I? Because, you know, they’re only little, of course they’re going to think of each other as brothers! Especially if their mums are friends.”

Noah barks out a laugh then, unable to help himself. Ross is struggling to bite back his smirk, whereas Noah is just letting loose.

Vanessa gives him her best dirty look before answering. “No, no, we _are_ together.”

The teacher looks more confused then than ever before. “But … but I thought that —” she looks at Ross suspiciously, before gesturing towards him and Charity, “— are the two of you … not together?”

Charity looks horrified. “ _God,_ no!”

Ross scowls at her. “Alright, alright. You could do a lot worse.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, and I could do a lot  _better_ , an’ all.”

“And she has,” Vanessa adds.

The teacher backs off then, taking a few steps back. She laughs nervously, eyes flickering between the three of them as if she thinks something is about to kick off any minute. “Right!” she says, a little too cheery. “Well, I’d best be off, you know, make the rounds, but boys, you did fantastic out there!”

Moses and Johnny smile happily up at her, before continuing their game. She leaves hastily, rushing off in the direction of another couple who are chatting happily with a little girl.

“Daddy?” Moses asks, driving his car across the ground. He smashes it into Johnny’s, the two of them supplying little explosion noises every time they hit. “Are you having special tea with us?”

“Erm, I dunno mate, I don’t think so,” he replies. “What’s ‘special tea’?” He directs that question to Vanessa and Charity.

“We’re just taking them out for a McDonald’s,” Vanessa says. Her and Charity share a long look then, the kind that shows they’re obviously having an unspoken conversation, before she puts on a smile that’s just a little too big for her face. “You can come with us! Only if you want, obviously. Moses would love to have you there.”

He’s going to decline, say that he’ll just take him out for his own version of a ‘special tea’ on Friday when he’s got him, but then he looks down and sees Moses looking up at him with so much hope in his eyes, that he can’t help it when he agrees to the offer, even though he knows it’s likely to be an excruciating hour or so of him and Charity insulting each other over the table and Vanessa trying her best to diffuse the situation.

He figures he might as well get used to having them around, seeing as Vanessa and Johnny are clearly here to stay. Maybe he doesn’t mind as much as he thought he might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chat with me noahdingles.tumblr.com


End file.
